I never thought we'd last this long.

On November 5th, 2009, I attended what was then the North American Forza Private Race Night, created by a user named Pakx to be more accommodating to our country than the week-old European Private Race Night (which is, unfortunately, long gone). We had a meager crowd, and eventually, I somehow became the guy in charge of the lobby.

Three years later, there are too many memories to put into words. Too many crazy moments. Throughout it all, 157 weekly gatherings at a very late time on Thursday nights, combined with a recurring special event on New Year's Day, several special endurance races, multiple race nights for other games, my ill-advised attempt to drive for 24 hours, and countless bits of questionable comedy scrawled onto notepads.

Race Night is three years old.

So much has changed in that time. We've gone from barely filling a lobby in Forza Motorsport 3 to filling a lobby in Forza 4, filling a Forza 4 club, and filling a club and a half in Forza Horizon. I've gone from being a lurker on Giant Bomb to being that quiet moderator nobody knows about. I started as an unemployed student struggling to put together the cash for car packs and limited edition copies of Forza, and now I'm a graduate working for decent pay and long hours struggling to put together the free time for planning Race Night's special events.

Through it all, Race Night's as strong as ever.

We're not an excessively popular group amongst this community or any other corner of the Internet – never have been, really – but to those who have stuck with us, I'd like to think bonds have been forged. Many of us have become friends, at least as much as the Internet will allow, and sometimes even beyond that. I've attended PAX conventions with Keval, UnsolvedParadox, Wormious, and Slowbird. I've gone to the Detroit Auto Show with Keval, where he had to endure my disdain for Japanese automakers and an astounding ability to lose my car keys in five seconds.

Also, Slowbird's humor is just as awesomely bad in person as it is online. It is a gift he cannot turn off.

There's a lot more to Race Night and our history that I'd love to write about, but for now, I feel it's more appropriate to say what matters most: To all of you who have attended our gatherings, joined our clubs, contributed designs and ideas, and in general supported our efforts and madness in one way or another over the years, thank you. Thank you so very much. You've given me and many others lasting memories and a reason to love this crazy little hobby of racing games.

"We are Race Night" was a saying I came up with to parody FOX Sports' absurd post-event sign-off, but it has come to transcend the parody and represent the weird fanatics we are. We will gladly pit Smart cars against vans. We'll push under-powered Datsuns up Japanese mountains any day of the week. We will try the worst ideas motorsports could ever conceive simply because someone in the group disapproved.

We are Race Night, and I thank you all for that.